How to Deal with Bad Beats

Started your season 2-4, 1-5, or even 0-6 despite a solid draft? Wondering how long you can keep telling yourself that you are simply getting the wrong side of the coin flip? Curious how the idiot with the 2 bye players won this week while you lost? Well, I’m here to tell you that we’ve all been there. It hurt, I won’t lie, staring down a losing record on week 7 after such a rush of anticipation just less than 2 months ago – especially if you dedicated yourself to one league. Well, what can you do to deal with this start? Here are a few things that I found through experience.
First, keep managing your team. Unless you auto-drafted your team, you MUST be attached to your team on 1 level or another. The feeling I had when I looked at my team on the draft board was comparable to a father looking at his baby for the first time. Sure, I might not win the whole thing, but that won’t stop me from checking Pierre Thomas’s ankle injury (which Sean Peyton conveniently neglected to tell us from the beginning will take 4-6 weeks to recover), picking up Deion Branch from waivers this week (yes, that’s a hint, you should do that), and finally give up and drop Marion Barber. I love it. Being 0-6 won’t stop me from “playing spoiler” to other playoff contenders in my league.
Second, start another league. Yeah, you heard me, and no, it doesn’t mean that you are betraying your friends. Join a few public leagues, and vent your frustration there. Draft well, manage lightly, and take a break from staring at sub-500 records.
Lastly…gear for next year! In my opinion it’s never too early to prepare for next year’s drafts. Everybody can look at a draft board from NFL.com, but what separates a great player from the rest is his/her ability to find sleepers. Not the same sleepers that 15 “experts” name in their blogs, no, YOUR sleepers.
Well, I hope that this article helped those of you that have been frustrated with your records. Fantasy football is a competition, just like any sport. Expect to win, but don’t feel down when you don’t. Just get them next time!

(This article is dedicated to my colleague Sam Arenberg, who started the season 1-5. Never lose hope!)